This topic contains 27,907 replies, has 831 voices, and was last updated by thinatlast 3 days, 12 hours ago.
Well that seems to have worked. She who must me obeyed, who is normally a one glass good, two glasses giggly, three glasses excessive sort of girl, had three glasses of Cotes du Rhone and seconds of the dumplings.
Before SWMBO gets me into trouble with those who haven’t read the book/seen the film, let me say that She was eternally youthful, eternally beautiful and worshipped as a Godess by her followers.
Hey there from Sydney….
New to the site but sadly not to dieting.
Have been drinking Milk Thief Kefir, which I get from the Local SupaMart (IGA). Taste great – sort of and you get a big bottle for the same price as the Babushka brand, which is a much smaller bottle. As far as the label goes the MT stuff looks heaps better quality too but who knows what those little critters are doing in my gut?
Have been taking Dr. Gundry’s “Vital Reds” for a big pro biotic boost for about two months now and I do seem to be feeling a bit better. Could have something to do with going dry about a month ago, so who knows?
Happy that Spring is finally here! Roll on Silly Season!
Cheers
Blooming teas, yes I like those, I have some in my cupboard at the moment. I have these double walled glasses I like to use for them. I bought some smaller ones for coffee, which I don’t really drink much these days, caffeine is terrible for fertility. But I also have some about 500mL I think they hold and they’re the ones I like for blooming tea as an occasional treat, it’s very expensive.
Penguin I laughed when you talked about eating with Chinese people in Hong Kong. I have a Chinese sister in law, and I was visiting one time, they live in Australia. We were eating these takeaway Mongolian noodles, and my brother suddenly asked if I’d ever eaten tripe before because he’d come across something suspect in his noodles that the Chinese family had bought. He was really annoyed because “they always do that”, unbeknownst to us, they’d bought the flavour with beef and all its offal included. Yes it was my first time eating tripe, but I did really enjoy it, and perhaps wouldn’t have if I’d known beforehand what it was. Luckily you can’t buy cat or dog meat in Australia (I hope) or they’d probably be cooking that for the NZ family and passing it off as chicken or beef. I really loved the noodles too, everything is separated, vegetables (lots), meat, and the noodles all in separate containers. Really healthy too.
Not a great fast day on Friday, my employers had actually put on a morning tea shout for 10 years of our company privatisation. I was starving and feeling the effects of low salt levels I think (dizzy, headachy) seems to resolve when I drink a bit of salty water, only really happens on fast days probably because reduced salt from food. So of course I had to partake. I’m not usually even mildly hungry on fast days before I’ve eaten, so this was a bit strange. I’d been feeling really hungry even before I found out they were going to shout us, so I took it as a sign it was not a good day to fast. I still felt horrible yesterday morning too, so I didn’t fast yesterday either. Today I’m on call for work, so I’m not doing it today. I don’t even feel guilty, tomorrow’s another week. I need to go back to daily salt water drinks I think is what I’ve learned from this.
Jody
Good morning SHs
Happy fathers day Joffy & Penguin (not sure if it’s fathers day in the UK at the same time as AUS).
Penguin – sorry I put temptation in your way with memories of dumplings. But given that you made it and ate it, I trust that every mouthful was delightful.
I think the trick with puddings not ending up in a unwelcome spare tyre is that, like many things, they are to be enjoyed occasionally not as everyday food. It seems to me that you have already mastered that behaviour.
Hi Sydneyhom, welcome. You aren’t alone with the kefir, a lot of us use that daily – I really like it. You also aren’t alone in having done many diets before this. Are you doing 5:2, if so how is that going?
Jody – impromptu morning teas can be deadly. It’s easier to stay strong when there aren’t dozens of tempting things right in front of your nose.Hopefully your FDs will get back into rhythm this week.
I’m having a very quiet day today so I decided it could be a FD. As usual I have started it with a pot of tea.
Hello everyone,
Haven’t been up to writing until I drank most of my coffee, that sort of a day.
Hi Sydneyhom, welcome here. By not dieting do you mean you are not doing 5:2 (which I don’t think of as a diet!) and if not, are you thinking about doing it?
It is good to have another Sydneysider here anyway!
A while ago someone asked me where I was living in the tropics (so sorry, my brain. But I did remember in the middle of the night, and then still remembered this morning! Amazing!) Anyway I was talking about Borroloola which is on the NT side of the Gulf of Carpentaria and really is sub tropical, but had greenants, crocodiles etc anyway! I taught there in the early 90’s, just one year and some extra visits, best job of my life!
LJoyce, it was a pleasure reading your zen tasting. What lovely food to be putting into your body!
I had a failed fast day yesterday. Minding my granddaughter (a bit exhausting even though it wasn’t for long) and hungry and then remembering I had an eggplant borek I bought with the ricotta, to eat yesterday. This is what happens when I don’t plan! I need to get organised and THEN have my fast day.
Thank goodness for new days.
But Oh I wish you could pass me a tray of your pudding in the corner, Penguin! If you had just popped it through the screen in my direction while it was still piping hot! Oh well. Time to go and buy some gravy beef myself.
PS Thanks for the SWMBO info, I only knew it re Rumpole. I am glad the original makes her so much more powerful.
Gday, so glad to hear your brother is well enough to drive again! It sounds like he is recovering really well!
Good luck with the pasta.
While I generally make mine with white flour, part of eating better was a decision I made to only eat pasta and pastry if I make them myself. I LOVE homemade pasta but it is so much more work I only have it once a year… or three years? Which maybe a good thing…. but then I do buy pasta occasionally (but not pastry!). I just love the lasagne I make with home made pasta rolled so thin I don’t need to cook it before layering.
Jody, Lovely to see your post. But how dreadful if coffee is connected to difficulty conceiving. I wish it was one of your mad naturopath’s mistaken beliefs!
Sorry you have had a bad few days, but 5:2 is a common sense way of eating and nicely flexible. Ofcourse you will get back into when the time is right, very soon I hope!
I wonder which one of us will have life a bit more organised first!
best wishes for a good day.
Best wishes to everyone else too!
Cinque, you got my hopes up then dashed all in one paragraph. I hope your FD went well yesterday.
Welcome sydneyhom, Happy Fathers’ Day to you and the other dads. I note that you want to lose 25kgs. You can do it – I lost 23kgs with 5:2 and have maintained that loss for over two years now. That’s now a record for me. It’s a way of life, not a diet. Keep posting and let us know how you get on.
The talk of Chinese delicacies and disgusting foods reminded me of a programme I watched where two Aussie comedians who I only know as ‘Roy and HG’ went on a food safari to China and came across restaurant which served only animal penises. The menu items started small with cats’ penises but the wealthy could order the penises of large and exotic animals.
DD brought another greyhound home from the vet school this weekend. The uni rescues them from the racing industry, the dogs assist students in their learning for a maximum of one year and then they’re adopted to retire in dignity. Students take them at weekends so they can experience and learn how to behave in a home environment. Friday night was his first time ever inside a home and he displayed good manners other than finishing my coffee on Saturday morning (for which I received a good telling off; coffee, like chocolate, being toxic to dogs). He’s a gentle giant and we’re enjoying his company. He’d love a good run and to play with other dogs in the park but, sadly, WA law requires greyhounds to be muzzled and on a lead which is ironic considering another group of humans determined that all they were good for was running.
FD for me and I’m looking forward to it. I’m having the same thing I’ve had for last 4 FDs and making split pea and ham soup for the OFMs as we don’t bother with the restaurant crowds on fathers’ and mothers’ days.
P.S. It took me so long to finish that post that I now have my answer from Cinque (so are you fasting today after all?) and a new post from LJ who is fasting with me today. Yay! Nice to have some company.
GDSA – you are going to have to find arecipe that include broad beans and duck eggs – good luck with that. Glad to hear your ducks finally feel at home enough to start laying – or maybe its spring. I used to plant a big crop of broad beans at the end of each autumn – they gave me a green crop to dig in (eventually) and an early crop of spring veg. Last year I converted the large garden bed next to the house to ornamentals in preparation for selling the house so I no longer have a bed where I can plant them. I’m relying on the frozen version these days.
Broad bean are a veg that I didn’t like much as a child, because of the grey tough skins. I double peel the larger ones and found it made all the difference to the flavour and texture, it does rather reduce the volume though (which is probably why my mother didn’t do it).
Thin – hope your FD goes well. I have leftovers from Thursday’s FD that will do for today – only reheating required.
Cinque you aren’t alone in needing caffeine before being able to respond coherently to the forum – I’ve always finished my first cup of tea from the morning pot and am making headway into the second before I start writing.
We never had broad beans when I was growing up, so they’ve always felt like a treat. We grew some in horticulture class at secondary school, when I was around 12-13 and that was great, I asked my mother why we never had them. I also loved Brussels sprouts as a child, I think we ate more of those then than I do now, which is odd because we didn’t grow them. We had a vegetable garden so I was growing vegetables since I was little, until my parents decided to build a room over the top. But that was only things like yams, peas and beans. I want to get back into this, I have a lovely vegetable garden in plots but it’s only growing weeds now.
Caffeine and fertility is not a myth, even the doctors say to cut down, not just the nutty naturopaths 😇. Really bad for the developing foetus too. I don’t mind I’ve found a decaffeinated bean I can use at home, and I hardly ever have coffee out but if it’s ever offered I just have it. I feel a lot better without too much caffeine, I sleep better, when I’m allowed to and not on call, and I find I wake up a bit clearer in the mornings. I still drink tea but only 1-2 cups a day. I suppose I just got out of the habit of using my coffee machine.
I don’t really count my Friday fast day as a failure. It was more a learning experience. I only had one NFD in between and I don’t think that was good, and also i worked out it’s probably best to stick to one weekday and one weekend day for me.
I’ve added a bit of inulin (no not insulin autocorrect) to my daily routine. It resonated with me, I just thought I’m buying expensive probiotics, and I’m not feeding them? How silly is that? Then I saw some online on special (Biovea website) and so I bought it. I’m stirring a couple of tsp into my morning tea, and my digestion seems better already. I also bought some probiotics from them, Probiogen they’re in spore form so seem much better than even the ones crazy naturopath man is making me take. Spores are what some bacteria make to protect them from changes in the environment, it’s like a hard shell, so they won’t dry out and die if conditions are unfavourable, then when conditions are good again they’ll come out and multiply. With probiotics they say that helps them survive the stomach acid, so they make it to where they’re needed. Makes sense to me as a scientist.
Jody
Jody, I had the same thought process about the inulin – I wanted to make sure those probiotics had a steady food supply. While I know they’re largely getting that from what I eat, I do have have bad days where I suspect some of the strains of gut bugs go hungry. My probiotics these days come mostly from the kefir, but I do have a powdered form from Blackmores that I’ll use sometimes on a FD when I can’t afford the calories for kefir.
Glad to hear you found a decaf coffee bean you like. I struggled to do the same with tea as it’s really hard to find decaffeinated tea leaves (most shops only sell the decaf tea bags and most are awful). I haven’t cut out caffeine – just after 5pm, but then I’m mid 50s and definitely am not looking to conceive – just to get to sleep a little easier.
Good evening all and welcome Sydney.
The lasagne was delicious and I found the spelt pasta dough very easy to make. I rolled the dough a bit too thin thinking I might not have enough but was still good. I loved the nutty taste of it and even MissD said it was nice.
Had a LJoyce zen moment while shelling my broad beans. Had forgotten about the beautiful white fluffy inner lining of the pod – mother nature is so beautiful indeed.
My lunch today was 2 chook and 1 duck egg scrambled, toasted rye sourdough, 4 slices of Barossa Valley panchetta cooked crispy and a steamed mixture of spinach, green and purple kale, garden peas and broad beans all sprinkled with fresh herbs. Very chuffed that everything except for the sourdough and panchetta was home grown/laid. Im working on making my own sourdough but panchetta will be a bit beyond me haha.
Had a bit of a sad moment this morning visiting the cemetery for fathers day.
On a lighter note planted some rainbow spinach, 3 varieties of capsicums, basil, chives and some more mint.
Ho hum it’s Sunday night. Time to start preparing for the school and working week.
LJoyce. Thank you for the thought. That is the second time this year – Father’s Day with us is the third Sunday in June. Until I checked that I was beginning to think my brood had forgotten!
Cinque, I enjoyed Rumpole, but I suspect he used SWMBO literally.
Your seasons have to be more than a straight 6 months out from ours – those broad beans would be early for us. Our season is changing – there were seven partridges in my garden this morning. Both of my neighbours have cats that are mighty hunters, but they pretend not to have seen the partridges. Our domestic cats have no restrictions on their movements and kill a lot of small garden birds. I read this morning that in Australia they are by law not allowed out at night and it was suggested that we might consider that. Is it true?
It is a wet day. I shall spend this afternoon skinning and freezing a stack of tomatoes,
Hi Penguin, domestic cats just decimate our precious wildlife.
But while I try to keep my cat inside at night, since she discovered another source of food last year (somewhere!), I can’t always get her to come in at night (especially on warm nights, and full moons) and she has never been caught and I haven’t been fined. So our poor wildlife is still at risk. It is local council law, but I think all, or most, councils have that law. And I am afraid all, or most, councils don’t police it very well.
I have realised that my sprained forearm is why I haven’t been cooking. But I made a big pot of Scotch broth, nailed it this time, and hopefully didn’t hurt my arm more. I am beginning to get sorted.
Must put some bread up to rise.
I have a lovely broad bean recipe that goes beautifully with boiled eggs! I will try to put it up here in the morning. Broad beans are just beautiful! Flower and pod!
It’s getting late. See you in the morning!
Good morning,
Windy here and I have clothes out on the line already. Fingers crossed we miss the rain.
Hello to your greyhound Thin!
They are very popular around here, all rescued ones I think. No muzzles!
The cat came in last night like a good girl.
Here is the recipe I make every year when broadbeans come in. If I get homegrown I pick them small and tender. The flavours go so well together! It is an Egyptian recipe. I don’t follow the amounts, just put it together to suit me.
900g fresh broad beans
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp chili powder
300 ml water
Put everything in a saucepan and simmer until the beans are tender.
Makes a lovely lunch with a boiled egg in quarters and a piece of bread and butter!
I am having another ‘organising food’ day and then I will see about fasting again. Hooray.
Hoping everyone has a good day today!
Morning Cinque, you sound a little chirpier. I do hope you’re soon back to your old self.
I enjoyed my fast yesterday and have been well-rewarded on the scales. We all loved having our house guest. He’s just returned to work this morning but will make someone a perfect pet. I’m pleased the Victorian Govt. is able to show some common sense. In WA, all greyhounds are guilty until proven innocent. They can go through some testing to gain a ‘green collar’ which means the muzzle can be removed but are never allowed off lead.
I imagine it’s not easy to call a cat inside at night, Cinque! Estimates are that the average well-fed domestic cat kills 400 native birds & reptiles annually. It’s instinctive behaviour. Some of our neighbourhood cats wear bells. Another good reason to keep cats inside at night is to prevent them from fighting each other; DD sees horrid facial injuries at the vet hospital where she works on Saturdays.
I love broad beans.
All the best to the Monday fasters. There’s not been much talk of fasting or weight loss/maintenance around here lately. Are we all dab hands now? Hi to Merry, Intesha, Joffy if you’re still with us.
Morning all.
I had a power blackout this morning – power just came back on about 20 minutes ago. I suspect some trees came down in last night’s stormy weather that affected power lines. The last 3 days we’ve had high winds here, which is always a worry for trees being ripped out of the ground – nothing on my property this time thankfully. I also had heavy rain through the night and it’s continued on and off all morning, definitely feels more like winter than spring.
GDSA, I feel for you with that first trip to the cemetery for fathers day. The first year or two can feel rather raw but it does get easier. My parents are both buried in the Riverland, so I can’t visit often. But my sister called yesterday to day she’s put new flowers on their graves for fathers day.
GDSA, Cinque and Thin – I love broad beans too, I’m always amazed at how sweet they are when fresh. Have you tried eating them whole like a normal green bean? You can only do this with the really small ones that don’t yet have very pronounced bean development within the pod. I only used to do this when the crop was producing too much for me to keep up with.
Although I rarely make risotto these days (and when I do I use pearl barley rather than rice), my favourite risotto is broad bean and panchetta – it’s just delicious.
Penguin – I did wonder if mothers & fathers days were celebrated at different times of year in other countries – looks like they are.
Because our climate is generally warmer than yours I’m sure it impacts the growing season, especially for spring veg. There are also lots of differences between areas. Where GDSA lives she has plenty of daytime sun for most of the year, and unfortunately far too little rain, so it means spring starts early. Where I live it’s colder and wetter and although I too used to grow broad beans over winter, mine wouldn’t be producing for another month and I couldn’t plant out things like capsicum or tomatoes until October because the ground is still too cold here.
I have taken some kangaroo mince out of the freezer and I’m thinking of making a stuffing for capsicums and field mushrooms with it, perhaps with some lentils, kasha, veg and middle eastern spices. Sounds a bit odd doesn’t it, middle eastern kangaroo, although probably no odder than putting it with beef would be as, I think they eat mainly lamb & goat.
Have a nice day.
The capsicums and field mushrooms are stuffed. I made a very large mixing bowl full of the meat lentil & veg stuffing (plus some egg to bind it all), but managed to cram it all in by piling it very high. The big field mushrooms look more like boulders now. I have everything packed into a large enamel baking dish ready for baking. I should get many meals from these, so most will go into the freezer, next to all of that left-over stew. I’m going to have to stop cooking for a couple of weeks to catch up on the freezer backlog again.
I can tell that I’ve been stuck inside by the rain for too many days now. I’ve spent most of the afternoon snacking. Not the best follow up to a FD. I’m determined to eat nothing more until dinner now.
Given the impact weather has on my exercise levels I think it’s time to consider rejoining the fitness centre. I had let my gym membership lapse because I was active enough at the time that it expired and decided I did not need it. However, both rain and heat will deter me from being outside, so it’s really only spring and autumn that I am actually active enough. There is a fitness centre about a 25 minute drive from me that is no frills and has very reasonable prices so I will rejoin there. I’ve just checked their website – I think this must be a sign – this week they are offering 18 months membership for $155. Most of the fancy gyms charge this much per month. This gives access to the indoor heated pool, the weight machines, the cardio machines and also all fitness classes. (If you want access to the free weights gym & personal trainers that’s extra.) I think it’s an excellent deal – it comes in at $8.61 per month – I don’t have to go very often to make it a worthwhile investment. In recent years this is the only fitness centre I’ve used because it’s not pretentious and it’s affordable. In fact I’ve noticed that many of the people that I see there are pensioners and uni students – obviously it fits their budget too. Access to their pool was of enormous help both before and after my knee replacement, although in the last few months that I was a member I mostly used to cardio & weight machines. I’ll drive over on Wednesday with my gym gear so I can do some exercise as soon as I join. I have a physio treatment scheduled for Thursday, so if I do anything silly on Wednesday I can get it sorted quickly.
Hope you are all having a good day – preferably a drier one than I’m having here.
LJoyce. We are a small island, but have regional variations as well. OH’s cousin lives in East Anglia. Compared to us they have hotter, drier summers and colder winters. My father was raised in the south-west and never saw snow until he was 20 yrs and moved north. As a child in the north we missed several weeks of school every winter because the snow stopped half the kids getting to school. The summer days in the north are much longer than yours, but in the winter an office worker may never see daylight.
Since reaching my initial target weight I have been too casual in my eating patterns. Not only no progress towards a revised target but I am about 4 lbs above my old initial target. So this week I am back to the old regime – total no solids fast from Sunday evening until Wednesday morning. Just tea/coffee/water. I need to re-establish the habits – I have forgotten already and had milk in my morning tea.
Penguin – a 2 1/2 day liquids only fast sounds like a drastic fast to me. I can’t handle even B2B, let alone no food at all – but it’s obviously something that works for you. I hope you deal with those extra 4 pounds quickly.
We get snow here in the Adelaide Hills about once every 5 years and it melts as soon as it hits the ground. I’ve always had a romantic notion about living in an area where it snowed, but I strongly suspect the reality would lose it’s appeal rather quickly when I couldn’t get out of the house because of snow drifts, and the pipes bust from the frozen water, and the electricity failed because the weight of the snow on the tree branches bought them down across the wires – it’s sounding less appealing my the minute. I am determined to do the white winter Christmas one year though.
I hope your 2 day fast goes well and the scales reward you on Wednesday morning.
GDSA – I really wish I could send some rain to the country areas, I know you need it and I’ve had about as much as I can stand.
I remember the effect of the rare heavy rains we had in the Riverland when I was growing up. We lived off a dirt road that the council graded about once every couple of years. It just couldn’t cope with heavy rain and turned into a muddy bog. The only way out was on foot or on a tractor. These days with the amount of 4 wheel drives people would probably manage, but no-one had 4 wheel drives there in the 60s and 70s. I remember being sent into the town on foot (about 1 1/2 kms) to get something from the shops that mum needed. I was rather muddy by the time I got home.
Funny though, no-one really minded the inconvenience because we were always grateful for the little rain we got.
Hi SHs & Penguin & Cali,
Adelaide (capital city of South Australia) might be a pretty small city by world standards. But GDSA and I (and the rest of the S.A. taxpayers) are now the proud owners of the 7th most expensive building in the world. We’ve just spent 2.34billon on a new Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) – and that doesn’t include the medical equipment fitout – that’s another 0.25billion. It was officially opened yesterday and patients started being transferred from the old hospital. I think the old RAH was opened in the 1850s, so I hope the new hospital lasts that long – it will need to, as we’ll probably still be paying it off for many decades.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-04/what-does-the-nrah-look-like-from-above/8870410?WT.ac=statenews_sa
If the reports I’ve read are true, most locals a bit excited to hear that lots of the deliveries within the hospitals (medicines, food etc) were going to be made by robots – then they were equally disappointed to find out that these robots have their own lift system and will be seen by staff but not patients. It seemed everyone wanted to see the robots.
Good evening,
Cheers for your new hospital SA! The robots do sound fun!
There was an interesting radio discussion about how hospitals went from places of beauty and peace and care, pre antibiotics and other modern techniques and medicines, to industrial places that didn’t try to be anything but efficient in administering. But now they are designing them to be more attractive and easy to be in and find our way around and to make the patients have their wholistic needs met. So I hope your hospital is wonderful in that way too!
I’ve had a good day, definitely chirpier, and even took my dishwasher breaking down in my stride. Got my (small) list of things to do done, made a yummy dal. Managed to get my clothes dry while reports of snow and hail came in from other parts of Victoria! Bread is on its second rise.
I never did manage to eat the tiny broadbeans pods LJoyce, the furry inside puts me off, even though I know it wouldn’t have developed at that stage!
Your gym sounds lovely!
Thin, I hope the greyhound gets a lovely home. Hope my cat comes in soon too! You are so right about the fighting. I make the most of this cat, but only have her because she was my daughter’s and couldn’t cope with their growing family.
I think I will fast Wednesday and Sunday with you this week Thin.
Penguin good luck for your fast and don’t forget to stop the milk next cuppa!
Cheers all!
Hi Cinque, glad you’ve had a productive day. I rarely seem to get everything on my list done.
I have been busy reading and posting for most of the afternoon – trying to distract myself from thoughts of raiding the pantry.
I too plan to fast on Wednesday and as I have several meals out next week, starting with a Sunday 40th birthday lunch, I’m thinking I’ll do Saturday as well as even with 2 FDs next week I suspect many of my NFDs will be pushing my TDEE pasts its limits.
I’m still waiting patiently for my over stuffed veggies to finish baking – they are taking longer than I expected, but the aroma is getting pronounced, which is usually a good sign they are nearly ready.
Yes they are rather good. Even though there is 300g of kangaroo mince in the mixture I can’t tell it’s there as the flavour and texture of the lentils, veg & spices dominate. The flavour really reminds me of felafel. Very nice and very filling.
I was planning to watch that program too, hopefully it’s interesting.
Those fires are making the news here too Cali. They are so frightening. Hoping they are under control soon.
Ooh I am so glad your stuffed veggies were yummy LJoyce (I knew they would be!).
The Obesity Myth was very interesting, and highlighted how complicated life is for those extremely obese people. It made me wish I had my YamDaisy cafe up and running to make healthy, fresh meals available to those struggling families. I live only ten minutes away from the hospital they featured.
Jody I am so glad you are not an extreme coffee lover (addict) as I am!
And don’t you have the best philosophy to see tricky days as learning opportunities. I hope that little twinklebud comes along soon, to make the most of such a lovely family.
Well I had a really good day yesterday! I felt better than I have since virus season kicked in. Dr Dishwasher is coming tomorrow and I am gradually getting the dishes out and doing them by hand. My bread turned out well and I did everything on my (small) list.
I had better go and attack today’s (small) list. Best wishes everyone!
Good morning all. I was about to say that the sun is finally peeking through the clouds here. But it got shy and has popped back into hiding again.
I seem to have already finished most of my housework tasks already – I think you inspired me Cinque.
I’ve just had brunch. My first pot of tea for the day and a small banana. I have an odd reaction to bananas – if they are in the fruit bowl I will reach for them in preference to anything else. Although I always limit myself to 1 per day and I buy the smallest size I can find (if I can’t find small, I buy the biggest and cut them in half). Although I love lots of fruits, somehow they provide a different kind of comfort. It’s not sweetness (especially as I like them under-ripe when they aren’t really sweet), I think it’s partly about the soft smooth texture and partly about them having a “special fruit” status from childhood. Because we had so much fruit growing in our yard, fruit wasn’t something that was purchased, it was picked from whichever fruit trees or plants were in season. The only regular exception was bananas that were bought occasionally – they always felt like a treat, and apparently they still carry this status for me.
Cinque I felt quite conflicted by The Obesity Myth program. I wondered why psychological support was a last resort instead of being one of the early supports put in place by this clinic. I am absolutely convinced that unless you deal with the self-talk and behaviour patterns with food you have no hope of dealing with obesity.
I also felt that the issues weren’t presented clearly enough for my liking. The issues were there but they felt muddled to me.
What I am very uncomfortable with, is the inference that because of these genes there’s probably no hope but bariatric surgery. It takes all power away from the obese person and basically says that someone else has to solve this for you because you are incapable of doing anything to change it.
Because I have been morbidly obese (I spent more than half of my life morbidly obese), I think it also made it difficult for me to watch because it raised so many conflicting emotions. I understand how you get to that point and how hard it is to drag yourself out – it is such a long difficult journey (I felt incredulous that one of the women interviewed thought she could do it in a year. That’s not realistic, 2-3 years maybe.) I also felt a sense of horror that if I’m not vigilant I could end up like that again – I feel a bit like a recovering alcoholic where obesity is concerned.
By the way I do agree with idea that genes predispose you to obesity. I was adopted as a baby, raised by thin parents with a thin sister but was overweight by the time I was a toddler, obese by the end of primary school and morbidy obese by the end of high school. I met my birth family in my early 20s – they were all obese.
Anyway, I need to stop and think about something else for a while.
Good evening everyone. I watched the Obesity Myth last night too and found it very interesting and thought provoking. LJoyce I understand it would have been difficult to watch for the reasons you outlined in your last post. Hoping you are feeling ok and your thoughts have moved on.
I’ve booked a 60 min massage and a 30 min infa red sauna session for Monday afternoon. Ive never had a sauna before and as for an infa red one well who knows what that will be like?
Im a little miffed today with the scales which report I have gained 2.5 kg since Saturday morning (its now Tuesday evening). Ive checked the batteries etc and they appear to be working correctly. I’m not quite sure what to make of it to be honest.
With today’s zen experience some of you will live vicariously and some will want to run for the hills. I’ve chosen chocolate, so look away now if it’s all too much.
If you’re still reading, I did warn you…
I have before me, one single square of Lindt 70% dark chocolate.
It’s such a simple looking thing, a simple dark brown square. The brand is written into the chocolate in cursive and it has neat diagonal lines decorating it. It’s glossy but smeared with lots of finger prints. It’s not the way it looks that creates anticipation, it’s a memory of taste and pleasure.
From a distance it has no aroma, but close up it’s much stronger than I expected. The aroma is intense, rich, fragrant, strong and reminds me of warm spice. It’s quite hard to describe actually because what I want to say is that it smells like chocolate and I realise that nothing else really smells the same, it is unique. However it is giving me the same endorphin rush that the kiwi fruit did. I think I could happily sit here sniffing for some time…
I think I’m starting to get high from all that sniffing, time to taste. I bite a tiny piece off and rest it on my tongue. The flavour is very similar to the smell but first of all it is sweet and that didn’t come across in the aroma. I bit another piece off, it has a lovely snap. The hard texture dissolves into creamy richness. I’m having trouble describing the flavour as I’m overwhelmed by the sensation – I think the sniffing scrambled my brain. The first flavour is definitely one of sweetness and this stays until the piece of chocolate has completely dissolved away, But after I get over the burst of sweetness I feel a deep warmth – I know that isn’t really a flavour but it’s the best way to describe it – it’s a deep bass note to the flavour of the chocolate. I’m trying to concentrate on flavours but keep getting distracted by the creamy texture. I want to say it’s spicy, but it’s not in the traditional sense – it’s slightly mysteriously aromatic in a way that I can’t quite define. It reminds me a little of the way some dried fruit can smell spicy (like raisins). I think I just got a hint of nuts in the flavour – wasn’t expecting that.
Ok, that was one of the most enjoyable things that I’ve done in a very long time. Definitely deserves repeating.
Something that I should point out is that I used to hate dark chocolate, I found it too bitter and nowhere near sweet enough. I was a lover of the paler, sweeter milk chocolate. It was my dietitian who suggested I try it again in preference to milk chocolate. At the time she was encouraging me to have tiny occasional portions of foods I’d craved as an alternative to my history of banning foods only to end up binging on them. I think my low sugar consumption had changed my taste buds and although I don’t enjoy all dark chocolate I certainly enjoy some these days – although 70% seems to me my upper limit at this stage.
Hi thin, LJoyce, Cinque, penguin, Gday, JodyW and welcome Sidneyhom!
JodyW, I had been feeling lightheaded on FD and sometimes on other days, usually in the morning. When I checked my blood pressure during those times it was really low. I mentioned it to my doctor a week or so ago and he told me not to drink the salt water ( which worked for me and raised my BP levels to normal rates within half an hour.) He said that the body tightly controls the amount of salt in the blood even when fasting for short periods of time like we do. He sent over orders for blood and urine tests to the nearby lab and told me to go there and get tested the next time that happened. So far in over a week it hasn’t. In fact, a couple of times it’s been high. I reduced BP medications as I was losing weight until I’m now down to none. He told me to wait to see what the blood tests indicated.
For me, the salt water or some a Vegemite on toast worked fine, so disappointed he didn’t want me to do that. Will have to wait and see. Jody, did you ever check your blood pressure when that happened?
LJoyce, the hospital looks beautiful! Adelaide looks bigger than I had imagined. How long did it take them to build the hospital?
Kangaroo mince? You eat kangaroos? They are too cute to eat! Do you see kangaroos near where you live, or are they out in the Outback?
I’ve gotten to like dark chocolate too. 70% is about my limit too although I sometimes eat 80-85%. It was the perfect thing for the Zen tasting, LJoyce.
Cinque, we don’t have any fires near us, but there are some south of here that are sending smoke this way when the wind changes. The worst ones are down in the LA area. I’m in northern Calif, in the Sierra foothills.
We finally got a break from the 100+ degree temperatures that went on for over a week. This is by far the hottest summer I can ever recall. San Francisco was 106 degrees f on the weekend. It broke all records.
Good morning,
Cold and grey here, but no cyclones or fires or floods (or war) as too much of the world is suffering.
Glad you are far enough from the fires Cali, but aren’t they a worry. 106F! That’s a shocker! Hope you get some cooler days now.
We just had Australia forecast and it looks like a dreadful fire season for us ahead, in every state. And it will be our turn to complain about the dreadful heat, even in Melbourne!
Oh dear. Poor world.
I hope you can work out that low blood sugar problem, the hot weather wouldn’t help!
LJoyce, and Gday, I thought many of same things re The Obesity Myth. Especially about that woman only being offered counselling when the diet wasn’t working and she had ruled out surgery. She obviously had been longing for it for decades, but hadn’t felt able to ask.
When I first saw ads for the show I thought they were going to be only about surgery, and thought I wouldn’t watch it, but that is only part of their response, and since I have a good friend who has done well with surgery (eventually: she had a lapband and had a dreadful experience, but then they did the sleeve and it has been good) I am glad it is one of the tools they use.
It is a really confronting show just because obesity has been so shamed and all the issues around it are so hidden, so hooray for them putting all the issues up, and hearing straight from people suffering, and having the doctors being clear over and over again that it isn’t the patient’s fault, and that failing the treatment isn’t the patients fault either.
Well, it is fast day for me, and I am all organised. Chicken out from the freezer and thawing in the fridge, shiitake mushrooms soaking. I’ll have cauliflower and peas in it as well.
Best wishes everyone for a lovely day.
PS No wonder everyone loves chocolate so much LJoyce!
Hello all. Feeling a bit relieved this morning as according to the scales I am 1.5kg lighter than last nights reading of being 2.5kg heavier since Saturday. So thinking I need to recalibrate the scales as they are obviously a bit wonky at the moment.
On the chocolate topic I eat 90% cacao. I love the bitter taste and no longer enjoy milk chocolate.
CalifDream yes we do eat kangaroo meat. Indigenous australians have been eating kangaroos since the dawn of time. Crocodile is also eaten although I’ve never tried it myself. As I live in a regional location we regularly see kangaroos. They are a menace on the roads especially driving a night. Emus are also regular visitors and are often seen in the middle of town wandering around the streets.
Yay pinenuts are on special at coles this week selling at half price. I love them but are too expensive to buy normally so will certainly stock up.
Morning all, I’m fasting too Cinque (as if I had to say) although I was thinking of giving myself an upgrade of real milk in my second coffee as I seem to be maintaining consistently under 60kgs lately. Funny how I instantly seek to do something to sabatage that! Or maybe it’s just that I am the weight I need to be and my body calls out for a refill if it gets too low.
GDSA, you did make me laugh about first checking the batteries when the scales weren’t co-operating! Other things that worked for me were jumping up and down on them, moving them to another part of the house, taking a hot shower or going for a walk. I hope they start to behave themselves. Thanks for the recent update on your brother; I had asked you before but it must have been one of the posts you skimmed past. Sometimes, it’s hard to keep up.
I couldn’t find, “The Obesity Myth” on SBS On Demand on the evening it aired so wasn’t able to join the discussion. I found and watched it last night. I agree with your comments completely LJ and I believe we all have to remain vigilant for life if we don’t want to return to where we started – this is why I try to incorporate 5:2 into all aspects of my life – including our holidays, not just the bits that suit me.
I have no doubt that genes play a big role and I’ve always said that food manufacturers are the enemy. However, I thought the presenter was at pains to frequently remind us that the patients were fighting their own genes which seemed to remove personal responsibility from them. OH’s first comment was, “Obesity is a Myth?”. Although it was a throwaway remark, I tend to agree with him in that the title itself supports this. As they also pointed out, 50 years ago, we did not have this problem on such a scale so, clearly there are external influences and personal choices involved as well as genetics.
I hadn’t realised before that, when a gastric sleeve is performed, the remaining 20% of the stomach is the part that doesn’t expand to accommodate food. That’s interesting. The Lebanese man seemed disappointed that he couldn’t get more food in after his surgery. And I couldn’t help noticing the 64 ounce bottle of coke in front of him. I think these patients need intense nutritional counselling from a dietician and, as Cinque comments, more psychological counselling. But also, far more emphasis placed on their own obligations and responsibilities rather than the expectation that Joe will cure them because it isn’t their fault. They had a similar documentary on an obesity ward in the UK and I noticed patients had access to a junk food vending machine in the hospital.
As I watched the story of ‘Karen’ unfold, I felt that her husband was a ‘feeder’ and that perhaps he was getting something out of her disability and was compounding her problems. I found their relationship confronting and dysfunctional. I heard a lot of excuses. I wasn’t clear about her reasons for refusing the surgery.
I don’t mean to sound non compassionate – it’s hard to get one’s thoughts across in this format. I think I was just a bit irritated already because I’d earlier caught up with a couple of friends who’ve tried 5:2 and have both abandoned it despite good results and I found their excuses a bit weak. So kudos to all of us because clearly not everyone can do this.
LJ, I found it interesting about your adoptive and biological families. It must have been somewhat of a relief to make that discovery. You’d mentioned before that your sisters were slim people. Your weight loss ‘journey’ has been so remarkable and it does prove that, with the right support and personal determination, it is possible to take back control.
Must get out in the beautiful sunshine for a walk.
Well that went better than I expected. I was nervous about logging in today as I thought my “ode to chocolate” would have ruffled a few feathers. I’m glad that everyone took it in their stride, I think that says something rather good about food attitudes. I’ll just say one more thing about my thoughts after that experience – I remember when I could scoff an entire family block of milk chocolate and barely taste it and still not be satisfied – that single square that I had last night was completely satisfying, I didn’t even want to follow it with a cup of tea as I thought it might ruin the experience.
Cali – yes as GDSA said, we do eat kangaroos. In some parts of the country their numbers are so great they are too much for the land to sustain, so some hunters have a license to cull them – a bit like deer or wild boar hunting in other countries. Kangaroo meat is a lot like beef, just a little more of a gamy flavour, but it is leaner and lower in calories but still really high in iron. I don’t eat it often but when I went to buy beef mince they didn’t have the lean ones just hamburger mince, so I bought the kangaroo mince instead.
My cousins used to run an emu farm. All parts of the emu have a use – the skin can be tanned as leather, the feathers are used in making hats, the meat can be eaten (although the preparation is tricky and would test any butcher’s skills), but the most important product is the oil (their body fat is a semi liquid oil) which is used to make skin care and medicinal products.
I hadn’t realised there were fires close enough to you to cause smoke problems, the only ones I’ve heard about on the news here, were in L.A. and I remember you saying you were in the north of the state so I figured you were safe. Glad the heat wave has eased off. I hate it when that happens in early autumn – I figure I’m finally done with hot weather for another year and then the first month of autumn is a stinker.
Adelaide is really not that big. Our CBD is exactly 1 mile square and surrounded by parklands – it was designed that way. The new hospital is adjacent to the northern edge of the CBD. Our population in Adelaide is just under 1.2m and the whole state is 1.7m. In terms of population we are the second smallest sate and capital city in Australia (Tasmania and its capital of Hobart are smaller). S.A. & Adelaide used to have similar populations to Western Australia and it’s capital of Perth (where Thin lives). But the natural resources in W.A. really helped that state grow through the mining industry over the last couple of decades and they now have a population of 2.6m and 1.7m of those live in Perth. We are a very city-centric country with every state capital having more than half of the states population. The further you get from the city the sparser the population tends to become.
GDSA – I make a roasted cauliflower salad that requires some toasted pine nuts if you’d like the recipie – it’s very nice.
Cinque – I’m glad to hear that the gastric sleeve is better tolerated. I also know several people who had a lapband and then had serious medical problems. All of them lost the weight but had infection or serious digestion issues and had to have the band removed – needless to say they regained the weight. It was what made me determined not to go down that path. I also have a hiatus hernia so I was a prime candidate for getting more digestion issues from bariatric surgery. I also had concerns about how it would affect the way I relate to family. A lot of family interaction is done over meals – I didn’t want to always feel separated or different because I couldn’t eat a meal with them.
Thin – I agree with your comments about the husband helping his wife stay fat. In my mid 20s I went from about 120kg down to 67kg – this was in the early years of my marriage. My husband went into a state of panic and thought I was going to leave him. In his mind, when I was fat I didn’t have options and he didn’t have to worry about me finding someone else. He had his own insecurities and no reassurances from me seemed to help. When I was overweight he found it easy to blame my weight for anything that was wrong with our relationship – it was the scapegoat so that nothing had to be faced or addressed. In fact I got so annoyed by that, that I think the main reason I lost the weight at that time was to prove him wrong. It was only after my weight got under 70kg and I’d kept it there for some months, that he finally agreed to go to marriage counselling – because his usual scapegoat was gone.
FD for me today as well. It seems all of the Sunday fasters are doing Wednesday as well. I have set aside an apple a stuffed 1/2 capsicum and a bowl of minestrone – not sure I’ll need all of that, we’ll see.
It’s a fasty mc fast day and I am getting a bit non-concentratey and would be better going for a walk, but I need to wait for Dr Dishwasher. I just tried to watch the Obesity Myth again but my computer connection is so bad it took me an hour to watch half of it and now it is just telling me it isn’t available. Grrrr.
I am finding all these issues it, and we, bring up are so important.
Rewatching I really liked the way they specified that the myth is that Obesity is a lifestyle choice, and that obese people are lazy and have no self control.
It made me think that obesity is really like any other chronic disease, including mental illnesses, and that managing any chronic illness is difficult and exhausting and frustrating and requires so much planning, and commitment and especially good support and good luck.
From working with people who struggle with chronic illness (and with poverty) I am impressed with what heroes they are, much more heroes than those who get awards. It isn’t just the daily struggle, it is the way that once you start dealing with an illness it starts snowballing: you get poorer, family tensions increase, you can’t work, you get more chronic illnesses and so the cycle intensifies.
Obesity isn’t different from any of the other dreadful conditions.
When the specialist was saying ‘you have to be motivated’ and ‘she doesn’t seem to have the emotional and psychological resources’ I felt like yelling back, ‘go and check out her life! find out how hard it is for her to make that diet happen!’
Rather than thinking her partner was a ‘feeder’ my heart went out to him, being a full time carer, plus working full time, and then feeling so guilty that sometimes he was too exhausted at the end of the day to make the meal she needed to have, and get easy takeaway instead.
I thought the husband who was saying he preferred overweight women to thin women was more of a worry. Here is his wife, on appetite suppressants, trying to lose weight and he’s saying he isn’t attracted to thin women. But I bet he wasn’t trying to undermine her either, he was making sure she felt attractive as she was. But it was undermining.
LJoyce, I was also really interested in your experience of being adopted into a thin family. What a life you have had.
I would just like to say that you are one of my heroes. I have had a good share of troubles, but you have lived through an avalanche.
Those points about being ever vigilant have been on my mind too, even before the TV show. I have been thinking how my daughter has never had an eating problem, since she was little she has eaten til she was satisfied, and then stopped. She has liked a good variety of food and helped shopping and preparing from a young age.
I hope this continues for her, and she is one of those people that never has to ‘control’ her eating patterns.
But I think once the bad things are triggered, our brain signals have got into dreadful patterns, our gut biota is compromised, our food habits have become ingrained, then we do need our toolbag of things to help us combat these.
It doesn’t need to be frightening though. It is like learning to live in a new place, and getting used to the wildlife, the climate, and preparing for the natural disasters. At first it needs constant vigilance and a whole lot of planning and new habits to build up. We mourn for the old place that was so comfortable and easy. There was sugar there! 😉
And we can’t stop planning our fast days or stop making sensible shopping decisions or checking item by item how we will manage a holiday or occasion. We will continue to have pigouts to recover from, and make surprise bad choices and have to wear the consequences.
But we have our toolbox of 5:2 and good recipes, and all the planning things that suit our lifestyles. We get to know the steps back, when we’ve fallen off the path, and we recognise dangers that are coming more easily and from further away.
And we are, mostly, lucky to have a life that is safe enough and organised enough for us to live and learn and use our toolbox as needed. Hopefully, when new trials come, we will be able to deal with them without falling apart re our eating. And if we do fall apart, hopefully we will gradually get the support and help and structure we need to have enough space to get our tool box out and make our life, and our eating, stable once more.
And oh, I do hope I can get my YamDaisy Cafe started so people/families can get good meals when life is too hard for them to make their own!
Dr Dishwasher has arrived!
Cinque – I absolutely agree that difficult lives, poverty and chronic illness (including obesity) are so often tied together. You have to address them all if you want to change lives.
I hope you have a newly restored fully functioning dishwasher. If I didn’t have a dishwasher it would really deter me from cooking.
I just grabbed a gap in the rain to go for a walk, although it started drizzling again before I got home so I’m slightly damp now. I was going to drive over to Blackwood to join the gym today, but I’ve had a headache and sore joints all day so I’ve decided I’ll go on Friday. I want to be able to use the gym as soon an I join and my body isn’t up to that today. (It’s a 50min round trip in the car so I don’t intend to join and just come home I want to make the most of it.)
GDSA – I just found a recipe for pancakes made from chickpea flour that might be useful for your new pantry supplies:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/socca_pancakes_with_94678
THIN – When I saw this recipe it reminded me of your normal NFD brunch – similar ingredients just compiled in a rather different way:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/banana_blueberry_and_50179
You’re a hero too Cinque! Once you get YamDaisy up and running, you’ll be able to nip across to the hospital and tell them all about it. Sometimes when I’m telling people about 5:2, I wonder if I sound like some nutter on another fad diet. Why can’t I just eat normally every day? Then I remind myself of the science behind fasting and that weight loss is just one of its many benefits. And how motivated am I to remain a constant, healthy weight and take control over reducing/eliminating all the potential health issues I was inflicting on myself by being so overweight? I’m so lucky to have found that toolbox. But it’s up to me to carry it around.
LJ, thanks for the link. Despite what I’ve just written, I really liked the idea of coconut ice cream to top it all off! I had some of the best ever from a street vendor in Thailand. I enjoyed your earlier post and appreciate your willingness to share these personal stories. Anything I try to write sounds patronising and doesn’t come out right so I’ll just say that, if we were ever to meet, I’d give you a big hug and say well done.
It’s miso soup with chicken for me tonight – I’ve finally let go of the bacon & chicken casserole freezer dive.
LJoyce those pancakes sound delicious, even if they are vegan. 😬 Coconut ice cream, yum, Coconut yoghurt would also be delicious, I’ve got a kit from Mad Millie (NZ based company) makes really good stuff. Maybe frozen coconut yoghurt could be a thing.
CalifDreamer interesting what your doctors said about not drinking the salt water. I’ve never had a problem with high blood pressure though, although I have had low blood pressure in the past, so maybe the salt water is okay for me. If I feel yuck I’m going to go for what helps, I would’ve thought. Could be low blood sugar too, I have been known to suffer from that before. We used to make a drink with Vegemite (I don’t like the NZ Marmite although I’ll eat it) stirred into hot water, I’d forgotten that, might try next time. My fast day on Tuesday I just had an electrolyte drink and that worked nicely.
I’ve just found some Lindt 90% chocolate in the pantry. I don’t much like it, but that’s probably a good thing. I saw it recommended in this weight loss programme. Instead of dessert you just have one square of chocolate as dark as you can find. Also there are other things, like this juice drink you make up. I actually wonder if this is why 5:2 was so successful for me at the start, because I was doing this programme too. I can’t really share specifics because I’m sworn to secrecy. 😬
Just been to the osteopath for back pain and headaches, he said my abdomen is really hard and it should be soft, he did lots of manipulation on it. My stomach was also pretty sore when he touched it. So I’m probably not digesting my food properly, compounding my obesity, which is no myth I tell you. Only 2kg to go and I won’t be obese anymore, but it’s really hard. I reckon lots of people don’t even know they’re obese though, because it’s become so normal. 70kg for me is obese, because I’m barely 5 foot tall. I see so many people every day, and I’m sure they’re much bigger than me but they just don’t seem to care or even know. It’s kind of sad, and sad they haven’t found something that works for them.
Good news, I bought some digital body fat calculating callipers and they say my body fat is now just under 30%. I was sure that Fitbit scale was lying to me. It’s been hovering around 40% the whole time I’ve had it, the lowest was 39%. During that time I’ve lost 10kg, all my back fat (shudder) is gone, I’ve fitted into clothes I haven’t worn for years (or at all), and the scale is telling me I’ve lost no fat whatsoever – I don’t think so. So it’s great to know I’m actually not 40% fat after all. Incidentally, Nutty naturopath tried to tell me I was 48% fat, based on his calculations, the tape measure around my waist was so loose it measured 110cm I think he said. I measured at home and got 92cm, 110 was ridiculous and I told him he was doing it wrong, as was the 48% I think I’d know if I was half fat! This was after I’d lost 8kg and all my back fat too, I dread to think what crazy number he would’ve got at the end of last year at my highest weight of my life.
Jody
Hi all. Thanks LJoyce for the chickpea flour recipie will certainly give it a go and yes I would like to get your roasted cauliflower recipie please. Have looked everywhere but no one here sells kefir unfortunately,a bit disappointing.
Ive had intermittent network outages all day so have just caught up on posts. Lots of interesting comments have enjoyed reading everyone’s thoughts.
I decided to do a waist measurement seeing as the scales have been giving me the gripe this week. My last measurement was 10th August at 80 cms and today I’m 78 cms. Haha scales I win !!
Im a dishwasher person too. Dont think I would cook as much as I do if I didnt have one. The 2 things I hate to do are washing dishes by hand and ironing. Unfortunately I cant get out of ironing but Mr Dishwasher is my best buddy.
So many great posts here in the last couple days! LJoyce, thank you for sharing about being adopted as a baby into a thin family. That definitely adds weight to the argument that obesity is hereditary, or at least that it makes it more likely. I’ve believed that for a long time because for as much as I eat when I’m not trying to lose weight, I don’t seem to gain beyond a certain amount. Given the number of calories I probably ate, I should have been obese too. But at a certain point, my body seems to slow way down as far as gaining. You probably grew up with thin eating habits since your adopted family was thin, but you put on much more weight than your family did. And they apparently can’t pinpoint exactly why that happens.
Cinque, I enjoyed all of your comments on the Obesity Myth movie. You’re right, we can’t stop being vigilant about our FD and what we eat. Do you think that it becomes much more ingrained and more of a habit as time goes on? I’m so encouraged that you, LJoyce, Thin, Penguin and others have kept the weight off for a long time. I think that says a lot for the 5:2, that it’s sustainable for a long period of time. All of you seem to have a fairly easy time of staying committed. Having this forum and this thread is a big part of staying with it for me. This is a great support system, with such nice people.
Thin, a agree that a great deal of personal responsibility is necessary for staying trim and food manufacturers or at least many restaurants make it very difficult to eat normal, healthy amounts of food. Our ideas of normal portions have changed greatly over not so many years.
How could anyone think a Mac & cheese burger with over 1,000 calories (before the fries) is a healthy meal?
Good morning everyone, it is that lovely morning after fast day. Very much enjoyed my breakfast and now I have the cat sitting on my knee while I try to type around her.
Lovely to read the posts here, but missing lots of people who haven’t posted for ages. Hope you are all ok! Sending good wishes.
Jody I am a shorty too, although I have a couple of inches on you. Doesn’t it make the extra weight show! You are getting close to that lovely milestone of not being obese. Yay! And hooray for being less percentage fat. Ofcourse you are! I hope the pain and headaches are gone soon.
A man trained in the Alexander technique talked to a group I went to and gave the tip that lying down on a hard surface (eg on a blanket on the floor) nicely straight, for 15 minutes, pretty much allows your bones to settle in their proper alignment. He said people might need to put a book under their head, but I am best without it. I am writing this because it has made a wonderful difference to me. If I am not well enough to do my yoga stretches, I just lie there and know I am doing myself good, and my headaches and shoulder and neck pain, and back ache I used to struggle with, is not an ongoing problem any more.
I’ve got a friend with pins and needles down her arms (not heart attack) and a sister with vertigo, so I have decided to share this tip with them, and your mention of pain and headaches made me think to put it here too. I love tips that are free and easy to do, and should do no harm to give a try.
Thin, it was nice to know we were both enjoying miso soup last night!
Gday, what a healthy waist measurement!
Good to give the scales some disdain, it might make them get their act together!
LJoyce, I do hope you are feeling better today and will be ready for the gym tomorrow!
Cali, thanks, and yes, I do think habits become more, well, habitual! It is hard that the science seems to indicate that our bodies will keep trying to get back to our larger weight, so it is our planning, analysing part of the brain that has to deal with it. But it can. Hooray.
Well, must go. the cat doesn’t want to move but I can sit here and do some officework!
Best wishes everyone!
Hi CalifD, thanks for the reminder that it’s not just the types of foods being pushed on us but the portions offered. I find I don’t really enjoy restaurant meals that much these days as it creates anxiety – I do a lot of menu research before committing and it can be hard to find a dish that isn’t bulked up with chips or served on bread. I am a little better at leaving items on the plate but it still bothers me to waste food especially when I’ve paid for it.
I’m with you – it’s not as if anyone doesn’t realise that fast food = junk food or as I like to call it, food-like substances. DD has been inside a McDonalds twice in her life and both occasions were for birthday parties in primary school. Of note is that one of her peers whose parents organised the parties at McD now weighs 130kgs at age 20. Tragic. Her Mum is a good friend of mine and we have walked together for 16 years. She’s getting close to 100kgs. She sees how 5:2 has worked so well for me but just can’t take the step. Steady diet of family takeaways and gallons of soft drinks. These are educated people living in an upper class suburb.
Jody, that’s good news about your body fat. I understand what you mean about the term ‘obese’ and agree that many Australians would be classified obese without realising it. The Obesity Myth documentary said that 65% of Aussies are now overweight or obese. Staggering isn’t it?
Cinque, I might try that business of yours lying flat on the floor. Yes, the lovely Thursday feeling!
LJ, I hope you make it to your gym today.
Hello everyone else. I, too, miss the old regulars. The forum works for me because of being able to log in any time of day or night to find like-minded friends who ‘get’ it. Merry, Intesha, Minka, Joffy, I hope you’re all OK.
Good morning all. I feel surprisingly chirpy this morning. By 6pm I realised that the headache was actually a migraine because the room light and noise from the TV were becoming unbearable, so I took an imigran tablet and went to bed at 7pm. They are amazing tablets if I get the timing right (it a drug specifically for migraines that makes the veins dilate – they don’t work on any other type of headache). Within 2 hours the pain had eased to the point that I got to sleep. I woke very early this morning, but got up and made a cup of tea and then took it back to bed because it was so cold. I used to get regular migraines but this is the first in ages, so I’m very thankful that they are rare these days.
I had a pleasant surprise this morning. I pulled on my tightest jeans – newly washed, so at their hardest to get on. The top is loose! Not only did they slip on very easily, but I can slide both hands easily in under the waistband. Unfortunately they feel tight around the knees, which means inflammation levels are probably up a bit, but this is a good sign that my body fat & weight are OK. I got so excited I even pulled out a very straight skirt that was too firm to wear comfortably over winter – it fits now. Happy dance time 😀
Cali, yes new behaviours do become more ingrained over time if you adhere to them. BUT they will always have to compete with behaviour & thought patterns that we followed for decades and that may have been imprinted in childhood. I think that new behaviour patterns will always require vigilance. The saying that “old habits die hard” is very true I think. When you have most things in your life under some level of control maintaining a new lifestle or new behaviours can feel mostly easy, but add the stress of ill health, family issues, financial issues, employment issues … It doesn’t take make to send our life spiraling out of control and in my experience we ten to revert to our oldest thought and behaviour patterns when that happens. I maintained my weight loss in my mid 20s for a couple of years, but as my marriage deteriorated so did my weight. In my 50s I’m mentally in a much stronger place and feel better equipped to maintain my weight now that I ever have before but I know that vigilance is something I can never be blase about. Last December I stopped carefully monitoring my food intake for 3 weeks over the Christmas period – I gained 9 kilos (20 pounds). It’s so easy to fall back into old habits and weight goes on alarmingly quickly and comes of frustratingly slowly.
I wanted to say something else about the genetic link between obesity and genes. It is a predisposition, not a foregone conclusion. I think environment has a definite impact too. My sister (also adopted, so different genes) had a very different body type to me. She was one of those kids with painfully thin limbs – she filled when she got to puberty. My mother was always trying to fatten her up because she thought that others would think she was starving her child. But my sister was also a kid who stopped eating when she was full and wouldn’t open her mouth for the next spoonful if she didn’t want it. It was apparent to me that if I ate it made my mother happy. She though a chubby kid meant well fed and healthy. By the time our GP told her she should be limiting my food the behaviour was already ingrained. I also think that having to limit a child’s food is something that hadn’t occurred to her. If you’ve grown up in a family where none of your siblings are overweight and everybody regulates their eating to their hunger without thinking about it, why would you expect that some children can’t do that.
My mother cooked very balanced meals with a lot of fresh veg & fruit, and I ate the same as the rest of my family. But, I was much more likely to raid the biscuit barrel between meals and I was the least active member of the family – especially compared to my parents who both had jobs that kept them on their feet all day.
GDSA – the ironing gets easier when you retire. I find most of my casual clothes require little or no ironing. My work clothes were the fabrics that required a lot of ironing, and I was very glad to send them to the Slavos for someone else to take on the washing and ironing. I also find I no longer have garments that need dry cleaning since I no longer need business clothes, which is a helpful cost saving.
Jody & Thin – I was not anticipating that anyone would have ice cream for breakfast-brunch (even the coconut variety). I was thinking that pouring kefir over the top of those banana oat pancakes would work for breakfast.
Jody – I really understand how much you want to lose the “obese” label. For me that’s 77.8kg and it’s always been a mental line in the sand for me too. Somehow being overweight is a completely different proposition to being obese. I also remember the sense of satisfaction I felt when moving out of categories like “morbidly obese” and “severely obese”. I actually felt excited to “just” be obese.
According to my BMI I’m still technically 13kg overweight, but “overweight” is a label I can live with, especially as I’m lucky enough to be free of weight-related health issues at this weight. I’m also realistic about how low a TDEE I can live with. Even maintaining a mid-70s weight my TDEE is about 1400, if I tried to maintain mid-60s it would be about 1250. Both my GP and dietitian have expressed their views that seeking to lose more weight is neither necessary at this time nor advisable. Although that may change if my health changes in a way that is connected to weight. I know my temperament well enough to know that if I keep dieting and fail then I’m likely to give up and regain lots of weight – that’s the old pattern. I’m very happy to stick to 5:2 and try to eat mostly healthy foods and allow my body to find a natural set point. I had plateaued at 79-80kg for 5 months, but last month I was 78kg, so my body is finding its way – very very slowly. For me the deciding factor is not can I stick to this for a week, it’s can I do it for years. Because that’s what’s required to maintain a weight level.
Looks like the Wednesday fasters did fine. I ate little because of the migraine so I have leftovers in the fridge to eat today.
GDSA – the recipe as promised. I am very flexible with quantities when I make this so I’ve given you a range. It depends partly on what’s in season and affordable.
ROASTED CAULIFLOWER SALAD RECIPE – 4 generous serves
1 small or 1/2 large cauliflower (or a 500g of frozen cauliflower – this might be a cheaper option for you)
1 bag of baby spinach (100-200g)
1/2 – 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes
1/2 – 1 continental cucumber (or 1-2 lebanese cucumbers)
30-60g currants
50-100g pine nuts
oregano, dried or fresh
plain greek yoghurt, about 1/3 – 2/3 cup (or you can use a thick kefir)
olive oil
seasonings for roasting the cauliflower (You can use just salt, pepper & herbs. I use lemon pepper, garlic salt & oregano.)
Break the cauliflower into small florets. Put then into a bowl or pot and cover with boiling water. Leave for 5 minutes then empty into a colander to drain very well. The cauliflower must be dry to the touch before the next step. If you are using frozen cauliflower you can skip these steps as it was blanched before being frozen.
Preheat the oven to 180C. Put the cauliflower into a baking tray in a single layer. Drizzle with a little olive oil and your chosen seasonings and toss everything around. Bake for about half an hour, turning the florets over once or twice while cooking. When they start to get brown edges and are fairly tender they’re ready.
Roast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan. I find I have to stay with them and keep stirring as they go from raw to burnt very quickly. I have learned that they need to be taken off the heat as soon as they start to colour as the oil in the nut is hot and they will keep getting darker after they come off the stove (definitely a lesson learned the hard way).
Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and the cucumber into chunks.
If you want a warm salad, use the cauli and pine nuts while they are still hot. Add the other veg (I sometimes omit the cucumber when making the warm version of the salad). Add a couple of pinches of dried oregano and pepper & salt if it’s needed. Add a couple of scoops of yoghurt and mix everything together.
For a cold salad, just allow the cauli and nuts to cool before putting the salad together.
If you aren’t too generous with the currants and pine nuts this works as a FD evening meal. I am usually very generous with the baby spinach on a FD.
The roasted cauli keeps well in the fridge for 4 days, but the combined salad isn’t great for more than 24 hours – mainly because of the cut cucumber & tomato. If I make a big batch I normally refrigerate the elements separately so that I can combine a single serve into a bowl when I want it. The only time consuming process is roasting the cauliflower, so once this is done the salad comes together very quickly. I use it as a meal by itself or as a side dish with grilled meat.
Just one more point – don’t be tempted to use fresh garlic instead of garlic salt on the cauliflower – it goes black and bitter (learned that the hard way too). Although you could roast a couple of cloves in their skins and then mash them into the yoghurt, that might be nice.
Although I haven’t tried it, I expect you could replace the cauli with broccoli.
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2 Sep 17